When manufacturing new barrels, or when reconditioning used barrels, a new inside croze is required at each barrel end for accommodating the barrel heads. A machine typically used to create this receiving groove is known as a crozer. The barrel will typically be in shell-form when sent to the crozer, comprising a plurality of staves temporarily secured together by heavy iron rings.
The crozer is used to cut the shell to a desired length, bevels the inner surfaces of the stave ends, and cuts certain grooves therein adjacent each of the two ends. Each groove is adapted to receive and hold a head of the barrel. After crozing, the rings adjacent the ends of the barrel are loosened, heads placed inside the grooves, and secured by tightening the rings. The exterior of the barrel is then turned or otherwise finished and the rings replaced with the usual metal hoops.
Existing crozers are large, often quite expensive machines. Such crozers, due to their size, are not intended to be portable, and require barrel shells to be transported to the machine for placement on a cradle to undergo cutting and bevelling. Existing crozing and bevelling techniques are also typically quite slow and cumbersome.
The applicant is the owner of a number of co-pending patent applications relating to barrel manufacture and reconditioning apparatus and methods, some of which are expressly incorporated by reference herein. One of these applications relates to a mobile system for reconditioning used barrels, and this is but one example where a conventional crozer is not suitable for use. The applicant has therefore recognised the need for a portable cutting and bevelling apparatus configured for use during the manufacture of new barrels, as well as during reconditioning of used barrels.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome this problem or to at least provide the public with a useful alternative.